


The Nightmare of Losing You

by Chromi



Category: One Piece
Genre: Committed Relationship, Dreams and Nightmares, Established Relationship, Fluff, Love, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 15:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20099125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromi/pseuds/Chromi
Summary: It was a stupid, illogical dream, yet it upset him nonetheless. But Marco would never leave him struggling, would always notice, would always be there to make things right again. He understood everything about Ace, after all.





	The Nightmare of Losing You

Ace awoke abruptly, his heart hammering in his chest as he took a moment to recognise that he was awake, it had been a dream, and everything was OK. He had had the same dream yet again, that horrible, realistic vision where Marco died in his arms, body bloodied and torn from protecting him - the threat changed with every occurrence of the nightmare.

It was a stupid, illogical dream, yet it upset him nonetheless.

Marco stirred behind him, against him, groaning sleepily as he was pulled from the depths of what must have been a restful sleep. He knew, he _always _knew, when Ace woke, as if they were bonded at the most fundamental level of existence.

It couldn’t possibly happen, at the very least not in the way his sleeping mind seemed to enjoy showing him. Marco could not get injured to such an extent, at least not without the involvement of seastone, and somehow the dream always seemed to bypass that detail. He could survive just about anything, least of all physical attacks like that.

But it didn’t stop the tears from coming, the tears of sheer relief at the feel of the gentle tickle of Marco’s breath to the back of his neck, and the way Marco pulled him in closer to his chest. He was alive, he was safe, and he was going to stay that way.

Ace tried his hardest to stifle the tears, to keep his breathing even and control the tremors coursing through his body, but he couldn’t fool Marco, even when almost unconscious. He willed himself to shut up, to stop being so damn stupid, but it didn’t work. Marco inhaled deep, breathing out slowly as he nuzzled into Ace’s thick hair.

“That dream again?”

His speech was slurred, thick with sleep and rumbling deep in his chest. Alive. Proof. And Ace had never felt so incapacitated by relief as in that moment. A sob escaped him, short, sharp, and hurting, and that was all Marco needed to move him. He loved Ace, _loved him _like nothing else before him, and Ace knew full well that Marco would never leave him struggling, would always notice, would always be there to make things right again.

Marco leaned up on his elbow and stroked along Ace’s shoulder with his free hand. He didn’t think it was silly. He never did.

“Hey,” he said, quiet and still soft with sleep, “Ace, look at me.”

But Ace didn’t move, shame heating his cheeks as the tears would not stop. It had been so real, the blood hot on his hands, the dead weight heavy in his arms, and for a moment on waking he had felt the very real, very painful grief of loss. He couldn’t just turn that off, couldn’t suppress the adrenaline that was causing him to shiver and his heart to race, fighting his logic because _Marco is safe, he’s here, it wasn’t real_.

Marco understood. He understood everything about Ace.

Ace allowed himself to be guided onto his back from his side, pulled gently by the shoulder until supine and Marco braced himself on his forearm alongside his head. Ace bit his lip to stop it trembling too as Marco wiped at his damp cheeks with the pad of his thumb carefully, lovingly, taking his time to retrace the action with each new stream over the freckles.

It was stupid. _He_ was stupid. But it felt so good, so familiar to have Marco touch him so tenderly, adoration for Ace intimately evident in his steady gaze in the moonlight that filtered through the gap in the bedroom curtains.

Ace reached up and cupped Marco’s cheek, his breath hitching when Marco leaned into that touch and closed his eyes, humming lightly.

“I’m sorry,” Ace whispered, his eyelids falling closed themselves to the feel of Marco’s fingers slipping into his hair, carding through comfortingly, “I don’t know why I keep dreaming it.”

But he did know. Marco, over the span of the last two years, had become immeasurably important to him, had become his first love, had opened him up to a world of feelings that he never thought he would ever feel for another or ever have returned. Marco gave him all he had wanted but never allowed himself to yearn for, filling in the gaps that Pops and Luffy and his brothers could not hope to touch upon.

And Ace, in return, made Marco feel things he had thought long dead, had awoken within him love that he had thought lost and forgotten and had multiplied it a thousandfold.

Marco laid his head on Ace’s chest, holding him close and snuggling into his side. He sighed into the touch of Ace’s arm curling around his shoulders, affection coursing through him.

“I do.”

But Marco didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to; they’d had this conversation many times before. They knew they had taken a huge risk, letting each other in, had laid themselves utterly bare to the very real possibility that one day they could lose everything. Lose each other. Ace’s anxiety came out in his dreams, whereas Marco’s plagued him during waking hours, prompting him to watch over Ace more than was strictly necessary.

“Marco?”

“Hm?”

“Please,” Ace murmured, tightening his grip around his partner, “please don’t leave me.”

He sounded so fragile to Marco in that instant, his fear so raw and laid naked, exposed, like it was something to be ashamed of. He could only see bravery in Ace’s ability to admit to himself, to Marco, that he was, despite all of his strength and wit, still human. Still vulnerable.

Marco would protect that vulnerability to his last breath, if he had to.

“I’ll never leave you,” he replied, sitting up slightly in Ace’s hold to kiss him softly, tenderly, telling him that what he said was the absolute truth. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The tears returned, hot to the touch as Marco went right back to wiping them away, hushing Ace soothingly. He kissed his left cheek, then his right, tasting the salt of Ace’s misery and relief, consoling him in his usual calm, patient manner.

“I can’t lose you,” Ace hissed, gripping Marco tight.

“And you never will,” Marco assured him, and Ace was rendered momentarily speechless by the way Marco looked at him. Open adoration. Honest love and the purest of affection blinking at him from behind long blond lashes.

Marco stroked Ace’s hair gently until he drifted off, his cheek pressed to Ace’s warm chest again when the effort of sitting up became too much. He would not allow himself to fall asleep again until he was certain that Ace had done so himself, listening for a few minutes to ensure Ace’s steady breaths did not hitch and stutter into sobs once more.

Ace loved him wholly, and despite the fact that seeing his love so scared speared Marco right through the heart, a small part of him couldn’t help but bask in that honest devotion Ace so painfully obviously held. It warmed him like nothing else could, touched his soul and stroked along his heart.

And Marco fell asleep again, cushioned by Ace’s chest, a small smile on his lips at how lucky he was to have been granted Ace’s love for him. He would never, ever leave him.


End file.
